The Passing of Time
by Sarah11650
Summary: Nate’s face beamed with pride and Serena couldn’t help but be proud of him herself. Nate wasn’t ready to be shipped off to school. He needed to figure himself out before he started the rest of his life. It was this rebellious, devilmaycare attitude that t


**Okay this is rated M for some mature sexual content, so if you can't handle that than this isn't the story for you! Also this is VERY much a Serena/Nate story. It may have passing mentions of Blair/Chuck or Rufus/Lily (since those are my other couples on this show) but it won't focus on them. Anyways, enjoy and be sure to review!**

**Chapter 1**

The passing of time was never something that Serena Van Der Woodsen paid attention to.

Her best friend Blair was always worrying about her future; where she'd go to school, who she'd marry and most importantly, what she'd wear to the wedding. She'd look at Serena with disapproving brown eyes, and place a well manicured hand on her hip.

_"When are you going to grow up and figure out your life, S? You always have to have a plan if you want to make it in this world."_

She'd say as she smoothed her perfectly plucked eye brows and checked her reflection carefully in her full length mirror.

Serena would shrug, flopping unceremoniously back onto Blair's queen sized bed; her blonde hair splashing out around her like a golden wave. She just hadn't cared.

While her friends were all worrying about school and setting up their lives, she was living every day to the fullest. She would drink as much as she wanted, stay up as late as she liked and date whomever she desired because she was young and as far as she was concerned that was never going to change.

Just like everything else, Brown had fallen into her lap and before she knew it, she was packing her bags to head up to school for her first semester.

Blair had stopped by that day, tears shining in her eyes, to say goodbye to her 'very best friend.' They had hugged each other tightly, blonde hair tangling with brown, and Blair had sobbed. When they finally pulled away, the brunette had stared at her with glossy eyes and trembling lips, and promised that no one would ever replace her.

Serena had nodded and promised the same, but she struggled trying to call up the emotion that Blair was feeling. It hadn't felt like an end to her; only another day, another adventure.

But then her phone had rung. It was Nate and he said he wanted – no, needed – to see her one last time before they both left. Her mouth had immediately gone dry and her heart had sunk to the pit of her stomach. Somehow she'd overlooked the fact that leaving New York meant leaving Nate, again.

She met him down at the docks; he'd wanted to show her the boat he'd be spending the next few months on.

XXXX

_"When do you leave?" She asked, sitting down beside him on the dock, her toes dangling in the cold murky water._

_"Tomorrow." He answered quietly, staring out at the water and refusing to look at her._

_"Me too." She said with a nod, swallowing the lump building her throat._

_An awkward silence came next, hanging in the air like a thick blanket covering their mouths and preventing them from opening._

_Finally Serena cleared her throat and forced a smile onto her face._

_"How was your goodbye with Blair? I bet you're both heartbroken to be apart, huh?" She said, placing her hand on his knee and giving it a squeeze._

_Nate stiffened, and Serena started to withdraw her hand; embarrassed for making him feel uncomfortable._

_Nate immediately looked down when he felt her hand leave his knee and without thinking he reached for it and put it back. He tangled his fingers with hers, silently letting her know that she'd gotten the wrong idea._

_"Nate, I'm sorry if I said the wrong-,"_

_"You're right." He interrupted, still staring straight ahead. "I am heartbroken and I don't want to leave. But it has nothing to do with Blair."_

_Serena's stomach swirled with butterflies and her head swam with confusion. He always did this to her. He was the only boy on Earth who could make her feel thirteen again._

_"When we broke up, I was angry at first__B__ut when I thought about it, I didn't know why I was so mad. We weren't in love, and it was silly to keep up with the act, especially since we're all leaving." He said, kicking at the water lightly._

_"I don't understand…" Serena whispered, licking her lips. "You and Blair broke up?"_

_Nate turned to face her for the first time that night with a look of confusion on his face._

_"Serena, we broke up two weeks ago. Blair didn't tell you?" he asked, squeezing her hand a little bit tighter._

_Serena shook her head from side to side rapidly__B__londe hair fell into her face__ from the motion, but she didn't seem to notice. 'Blair and Nate broke up? Why hadn't anybody told her? And Nate's heartbroken, but not over Blair?'_

_Serena was broken from her frenzied thoughts__ by Nate's free hand, gently moving her stray hair behind her __ea__r._

_"Serena?" He said quietly, his voice cracking a bit._

_She looked up at him. His eyes were red, but he wasn't high; Serena could always tell._

_"Serena?" He repeated his voice a little louder and laced with worry._

_Serena felt something bubbling up from the pit of her stomach, up through her chest, filling her with warmth and purpose. She leaned forward and kissed him square on the lips, ignoring the wetness on her cheeks._

_He kissed her back immediately, but pulled __away__ after __only __a few seconds._

_"Don't cry." He whispered, smiling. He gently wiped away her tears with his free hand, both refusing to separate their hands that remained clasped between them. _

_Their hands fit together perfectly, and they always had a way of finding each other. They'd realized this last year during their trip to visit Brown. The night before their interviews they'd shared a bed and nothing else; he'd been with Blair at this point. But when they had awoken the next morning, they'd discovered that their hands had found each other even in their sleep._

_Serena took a deep shaky breathe, trying to quell her tears. Serena Van __Der__Woodsen__ didn't cry very often and she wasn't sure when she last let Nate see her like this._

_"Why now? Why's this happening now? It's too late, there's not enough time!" She cried._

_Nate chuckled softly, although there were tears in his eyes too._

_"It will never be too late for us." He stated with an air of wisdom in his voice. It was as if he'd always known things would happen this way._

_Before she could respond, he stood up; never letting go of her hand, he pulled her up as well._

_"Come on." He said sweetly, kissing her hand and urging her to walk with him._

_Nate led her onto his boat; the boat he'd be setting sail in tomorrow. __He explained to her the different parts, and showed her things he'd built himself. Despite the melancholy in the air, Nate's face beamed with pride and Serena couldn't help but be proud of him herself. Not because he could sail, or even because he could build a sailboat, but because he was following his heart and doing what made him happy. Nate wasn't ready to be shipped off to school, he needed to figure himself out before he started the rest of his life. It was this rebellious, devil-may-care attitude that they both shared._

_She held onto the rail at the edge of the ship and looked up at the moon. Within moments he was behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his face in the crook of her neck._

_After several minutes, she turned in his arms to face him._

_"Where do you sleep?"_

_He looked at her quizzically. "My room's below deck."_

_"Show me." She whispered, __staring deep into his eyes._

_It would have been a mischievous suggestion if it were any other night, but the sharp familiar tug in Nate's chest and the serious look in Serena's eyes said otherwise._

_Leading her into his room below deck, Nate flicked on the lamp by his bedside and turned to face her._

_She locked eyes with him and slowly reached behind her for the zipper on her dress._

_He shook his head, never breaking eye contact._

_"Let me."_

_Closing the gap between them, Nate slowly unzipped her dress and watched adoringly as the material pooled on the floor, revealing her to him for the first time in over a year._

_Her hands shaking, Serena reached forward and gripped the bottom of his dark blue polo, pulling it over his head and letting it join her forgotten dress on the hardwood floor._

_She let her hands trail slowly down his taut stomach until they reached his belt buckle. She immediately set to freeing him from his pants. Removing his belt, she unzipped his pants and __knelt down so that she could push his khaki's to his ankles._

_Sitting on his bed, Nate bent over and finished the job for her, discarding the garment into the growing pile of clothes._

_Still on her knees, Serena reached for the band of his boxers._

_Ignoring the twitch of his hard cock, Nate grabbed her shaky hands._

_"No, baby." He whispered, pulling her onto the bed beside him. _

_She knit her eyebrows together in confusion._

_"I want this to last." He explained, gently stroking her inner thigh with his thumb. "I want to memorize every inch of you."_

_A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth and she__ nodded, understanding._

_Reaching back, Serena unclasped her bra and removed it, tossing it to the floor._

_Nate's breath hitched in his throat._

_"Come here, beautiful." He choked, letting wrap her arms around his neck as he gently lifted her up and placed her head on his pillow._

_Her belly quivered in anticipation as he trailed his fingertips down her torso and in between her thighs._

_He rubbed her in slow circular motions over her panties and was surprised and pleased to find that she was already wet._

_Her hips bucked gently at his hand and he slowly removed her panties, sliding them down her smooth legs that seemed to go on forever._

_Bending forward he placed delicate butterfly kisses all along h__er warm inner thigh. Each kiss__ moved a little closer to her throbbing core._

_"Nate!" She gasped; he looked up at her questioningly._

_She bit her lip and shook her head no, grabbing for his cheek and gesturing for him to come up there to her._

_He did as he was told, kissing her deeply in reply._

_He wasn't just going to abandon his pursuits though. Deepening their kiss, Nate slowly slipped a finger inside of her._

_She gasped and Nate took the opportunity to slide his tongue between her parted lips._

_Adding the friction of his thumb against her clit was almost too much for Serena as her hips bucked and her body trembled._

_"N-Nate." She moaned, grasping wildly at the band of his boxer shorts, desperately trying to remove them._

_He silenced her with another kiss, and helped her to remove his boxers._

_Holding himself up above her, he gazed at her; drinking her in. _

_She whimpered beneath him and his cock throbbed, bringing him back to reality. Slowly he entered her, taking time to let her get used to him. As they slowly found their familiar rhythm, he wasn't surprised to look down and find their hands laced together._

_"I love you." He confessed, as they lay curled up and spent, her head resting on his chest._

_He waited for her to respond and when after several minutes he got no reply, he felt the familiar hurt in his heart that he'd grown accustomed to after years of unrequited love for the blonde. Unwilling to wake his sleeping beauty, he closed his own eyes and drifted to sleep._

_She waited until she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest before she disentangled himself from his warm body. She barely moved her gaze from him for more than a moment as she quietly dressed._

_Grabbing her shoes, Serena tip toed over to the bed and bent down, memorizing every feature of Nate's handsome face. _

_"I love you, too." She murmured, unable to stop a fresh wave of tears from falling as she made her way out of the room._

_Nate opened his eyes in the darkness and watched her go._

XXXX

No, it wasn't until that first semester at Brown that Serena first started to notice the passing of time. Everything around her seemed to remind her of it.

She kept track through Nate's postcards which detailed how many months he'd been gone.

Through the weekly letters from Brown, telling her that her admission had been revoked do to her lack of attendance.

And through her growing belly, which told her how many months she had left before her baby would be born.

**Dun, dun, dun! Okay people; tell me what you think about chapter 1. I'm thinking this baby will be about 2 or 3 parts, depending on my schedule and time. But let's just ****say,**** the more reviews I get, the better chance you all have of me updating it!**


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